Griffith Park hike to Hollywood sign

There's a hiking group that hikes three times a week in Griffith Park, which is a large park at the eastern edge of the Hollywood Hills. They usually do night hikes, so I hadn't gone out with them yet since I'm quite keen on seeing the landscape. Yesterday however, they had a Saturday morning hike to the Hollywood sign.

The weather was fantastic (as it almost always is), pretty clear, not too hot. It was a big group- I didn't count but it looked like 35-40 people.

Here's the group at the start of the hike, heading onto the first narrow trail (not sure if this is the one called "ankle-breaker" or not):


A view of the landscape along the way. Do you see the fence at the top of the outcrop? Both Runyon canyon park and this one have obvious traces of human activity everywhere, pipes or tanks or power lines or stretches of really ugly fences. You get used to it though, kind of how in the arctic sometimes I'll take a photo of a breathtaking vista, only to notice once I go to process it that it's strewn with plastic bags and decomposing diapers, that I was oblivious to because they're everywhere. None of that stuff here though, but still, not a complete wilderness either.


Through those trees is the San Fernando Valley:


Another portion of the trail:


Here is a view of Burbank. Disney Studios are on the left hand side, in the middle. The Burbank airport is visible in the upper left:


There were four dogs hiking with us, here are two of them:



We're here! You can't go right up to the sign, it's fenced off, but this is right behind the back of the sign:


This is the Hollywood reservoir:


On the way back:


After the hike around 12 people went out for lunch. I'll go again with this group, they say the night hikes are beautiful to see the city lights, especially at the time of the full moon.